Evil and the Mask (9 page)

I left the cellar and closed the door silently behind me. I listened carefully, checking that none of the servants were nearby. Holding my breath and tiptoeing along the corridor, I thought that I really was composed. I had planned to go to my father’s room and make it look like intruders had been there, but somehow that didn’t seem necessary. Though I had no grounds for it, I felt that his absence wouldn’t become a problem any time soon. I crept past his room and opened the door to my own bedroom. Kaori was sitting on my bed, wearing white pajamas. She looked at me helplessly.

“What happened?”

“What?”

“You’re white as a sheet.”

I realized that my pulse was erratic, and that in fact it had been erratic for some time.

“And you’re sweating buckets. What’s wrong?”

I’d been so sure I was calm.

“Nothing.”

“But …”

Kaori’s figure, lit by the small bedside lamp, took my breath away. I was seized by a fierce desire. I moved closer, not understanding why such feelings should emerge now. When I asked if I could kiss her, she nodded quietly. I could see her pale skin at the opening of her white pajama top. Trying to conceal my trembling, I kissed her slowly.

“About your father, thanks. But I don’t know how long I’ll be safe.”

“No.”

My arms were still numb.

“It’s fine. He’s not going to do anything to you.”

“But …”

“We talked. He promised. It looks like he’s found himself a girlfriend, so he won’t come near you again.”

I was determined that she should never learn the truth.

“Really?”

“Yes. Kaori …”

I kissed her again, pushed her gently down on the bed. She felt that I was shaking and stroked my head, though she didn’t know why. I undressed her, and then myself.

“Fumihiro?”

I felt the fear rising inside me again. I was terrified of my father. Just remembering my conversation with him was terrifying. Suddenly I cried out and embraced Kaori tightly, trying to control my shivering. She continued to stroke my hair. As I held her in my arms, I was filled with love. Her body was warm, and I had eyes only for her. I would do anything for her. To please her, to make her happy, I didn’t care if I had to turn into the devil himself. I kissed her small mouth, touched her breasts, hugged her narrow shoulders. Her body grew hotter. She stuck her tongue in my mouth, wound her arms hard around my back. Then she seemed unsure what to do next, told me she wanted to stay like that forever. She sucked my nipples, thrust her tongue between my lips again. It moved softly inside my mouth, and I felt faint. I wanted her.

Then Kaori and I made love. She tensed for a moment, looked into my eyes and quietly opened her legs. Her sex was
tight, and it was sore for both of us, but I really wanted to be inside her. In the unfamiliar warmth and pain I came quickly, but then I entered her again. The second time still hurt her, but presently she started to cry out in a small voice. At that moment I was in heaven. Kaori was everything to me, more precious than anything else in the world. I would do anything for her. Whimpering, she put her arms around my neck and wrapped her legs awkwardly around my waist, kissing me over and over. As long as I could stay together with her, I didn’t care if I had to destroy the whole world. Perhaps we were mad—but can fourteen-year-olds be mad?

From then on we made love every night. Kaori’s body was starting to blossom, her breasts growing larger. I don’t belong to your father any more, she told me many times. Let’s stay together forever, she said. As long as I’m with you everything will be all right. Every day she seemed to grow more beautiful. For the next three months, until Father’s disappearance came to light, we were always at each other’s side.

WHEN I WOKE I was blinded by the strong white light.

An apartment I’d just rented on the seventh floor of a condominium, a large room almost empty of furniture. The glare left pale green spots at the back of my eyes. Yesterday’s clothes were strewn across the wooden floor. Bundles of DVDs, Shintani’s taste in movies, were still piled up in their boxes.

I was hungry so I ate some instant noodles to fill myself quickly. It occurred to me that my new self would continue to get hungry as long as it was alive, whether I liked it or not. The idea filled me with a kind of despair. I finished half the noodles while watching TV, then got dressed and went out.
On the news they were making a fuss about a series of small explosions in a number of towns.

Outside it was sunny. I started to sweat, and wiped my face with my sleeve. A thin dog on a leash approached me, a boy and a woman in a hat walking alongside. The dog nuzzled me, its tongue hanging out. I crouched with a smile and patted its neck. I was smiling because that’s what the animal wanted. The boy standing next to it tugged at my jeans. For some reason he wouldn’t let go.

“Kai,” the woman said. “Kai, stop it. I’m sorry.”

She turned to me, to Shintani’s obscenely handsome face. I looked at her with the same smile I’d directed at the mutt.

“Is this your boy?” I asked, though it would have been more natural to say something about the dog.

“Yes. Kai, that’s enough. I’m really sorry.”

“You don’t look old enough to have a son.”

As I stood up I looked into her eyes, reflecting that women with children often seemed to apologize. She was somewhat taken aback, and her eyes grew wary, but she didn’t seem displeased. I’d only said it because until a moment ago she’d been walking like she was bored.

“Nice clothes. They really suit you. You look beautiful.”

I knew that I was going off course, but I was waiting for some kind of shock or regret to appear inside me.

“What?”

“You don’t look old enough to have a son. You really are beautiful. Especially your eyes.”

The woman started to look a little nervous. I felt no change in me at all. Without another word I walked off across the hot
asphalt. The sunlight was glinting off the windows of hundreds of apartment buildings.

I TOOK A cab to the Shinagawa Prince Hotel. When I opened the door to the room the detective was already there. My pulse gradually quickened, and I made a mental note of the fact. He bowed slightly. I sat down and he placed a photo on the table.

“This is Kaori Kuki now.”

My eyes dimmed as though I’d been dealt a violent blow to the chest. Her large eyes, her thin lips, the narrow bridge of her nose. Softly drawn eyebrows, styled hair that fell to her shoulders. It was Kaori. As she was now, at twenty-seven. She was wearing a white pantsuit and carrying a brown handbag over her shoulder, looking at something off to the side with a melancholy expression. She was beautiful. I went to light a cigarette and found that my hands were shaking. The detective shifted quietly in his chair, acting as though he hadn’t seen it.

“Ms. Kuki is living in an apartment in Koto Ward and working at a club called Je le Répète in Roppongi.”

I noticed that he had spotted my reaction—he’d switched quickly from calling her ‘Kaori’ to ‘Ms. Kuki’—but I didn’t say anything.

“It’s said to be a high-class club. Apparently their service is limited to serving drinks, nothing illegitimate about it. It seems to be a sound business at the high end of the market. We’re still investigating Ms. Kuki’s friendships, but this woman, Azusa Konishi, is going to try to get close to her.”

He held out another photo.

“She had an interview at Je le Répète, and yesterday she heard that she’s been hired. In the future she’ll report to you as well.”

The woman Konishi was incredible. Most people would probably have thought she was even prettier than Kaori, but for me Kaori was the epitome of beauty. The detective took a USB memory stick out of his bag.

“This is a recording we took of Ms. Kuki. It’s less than a minute, from the time she comes out of a convenience store until she gets in a car.”

I reached for it with nervous fingers.

“There’s something else I’ve got to tell you,” he continued.

I noticed that I’d left my cigarette smoldering in the ashtray.

“It looks like someone else is watching Ms. Kuki too.”

“What?”

I thought that was probably the first word I’d uttered in this room today.

“We don’t know who’s doing it, but they seem to have employed someone to investigate her very thoroughly. The man they’ve hired is a real pro. Shall we find out who’s behind him?”

My throat was dry and I felt uneasy. I realized that I’d been staring at him for some time.

“Yes, please. But Shozo Kuki is dead.”

“I don’t think the person who’s following her has any link to her adoptive father, Shozo.”

I continued to watch him, bewildered.

“Whether I did any work for the deceased Shozo Kuki is still
something I want to keep confidential, but since this is connected to what you’ve asked me to do I’ll tell you this much. This man isn’t one of those hired by Kuki. I know it’s a bit vague, but he smells different. I can’t account for it, but he doesn’t seem like the kind of investigator Kuki hired.”

The room went quiet.

“What’s your best guess?”

“I’m not sure. But my instinct tells me it’s nothing good.”

His tone had become more urgent.

“I see,” I said. “Could you investigate that person too, please?”

“Yes, I will.”

He shifted in his seat again, unconsciously scratching his knees. I thought he kept doing it for a bit too long, so I averted my eyes as I stood.

FATHER’S DISAPPEARANCE FIRST became a problem on the estate three months after Kaori and I started having sex. One of the companies in the Group tried to get in touch with him. When the servants told them that he wasn’t here, they left a message asking him to contact them as soon as he returned. Of course, he didn’t come back. They called again, and when they received the same reply they began to show signs of concern. The staff thought he was probably holed up with a woman somewhere, as had happened many times before, and his business associates assumed the same, but there was some important business to take care of, so they called the lawyer who managed Father’s assets. He made a
few educated guesses and phoned around, but everywhere he received the same answer, that my father hadn’t been there. Suddenly, there was panic in the house.

I was aware of the fuss, but at first it didn’t concern me. Even if he was dead, even if they found out that I was responsible, I didn’t care as long as I could spend my days with Kaori. If I were unveiled as the killer, though, my idyll with her would obviously come to an end. If my handiwork were discovered, everyone would realize that a third party had locked Father in the room. Besotted and living in a dream world, it was only after the commotion started that I felt a sense of urgency.

My original plan had been to clear away the evidence two months after I was sure he was dead, either through starvation or suicide. With nothing blocking the door, everyone would think that he had entered the underground room of his own volition and committed suicide, by eating nothing at all, by eating the death caps out of hunger, or by drinking the poison he had brought with him. I couldn’t imagine that he would have just waited for death, enduring the torments of hunger. The reason I hadn’t removed my homemade barricade was that I was scared. I was absolutely terrified of going near what I had done. I pushed the fear to the back of my mind, thought only of my life with Kaori, of Kaori’s body.

After Tanabe left, another servant called Yoshigaki, a woman in her thirties who had been there for quite a long time, took over as housekeeper. She rang my father’s lawyer. As I eavesdropped, I couldn’t help feeling uneasy. They were
talking about contacting my father’s other children, all many years older than me. Whenever he went away, the servants were under strict instructions not to seek his whereabouts. But the situation facing the Group company was serious—serious enough to warrant asking the police to search for him. In those circumstances, they were supposed to inform the other children and wait for directions.

That night I had to act. After the servants were asleep I had to go to the cellar, shift the broken air conditioner and remove the furniture from on top of the hatch. It wasn’t much, but it took all my courage to make my body do what I wanted.